Iran pledges to fully cooperate with IAEA

Berlin, Feb 7 (IANS) Iran has reiterated that it will continue cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in resolving the country’s nuclear controversy, the official IRNA news agency reported Friday.”The bilateral coperation between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog will proceed based on earlier agreed modalities,” Iran’s parliament speaker Ali Larijani said after meeting with the IAEA chief, Mohammad ElBaradei, on the sidelines of the 45th Munich Security Conference.

The Iranian official, who described the talks with ElBaradei as constructive, said: “Based on Tehran’s constructive cooperation with the UN nuclear agency, the IAEA could reaffirm Iran’s right to have nuclear technology.”

For his part, ElBaradei emphasised that continued talks with Tehran could be very useful.

He expressed hope that a political dialogue could ultimately settle the Iranian nuclear standoff.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has repeatedly stated his country’s continued “serious and sincere cooperation” with the IAEA.

Iran is under pressure from the international community over its nuclear programme, which the Islamic country says is of peaceful purpose and meant for generating electricity.

But the Western countries, especially the US, fear that Iran is intended to produce nuclear bomb under the pretext of its peaceful nuclear programme.